General Motors and Volkswagen are enmeshed in a complicated legal battle over charges of industrial espionage.
Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, GM's former procurement chief, and seven of his associates are under investigation.
VW chief Ferdinand Piech lured Lopez and members of his GM buying team to VW in March 1993.
Lopez left GM, disillusioned upon learning the company no longer intended to build a new super-efficient plant in his home town in Spain as planned.
GM charges that Lopez and others systematically plundered GM industrial secrets before defecting to VW.
A search of VW facilities turned up boxes of alleged secret GM documents, including plans for a top-secret mini-car model.
Upon painstaking review of the documents, striking similarities were detected between VW's newly planned "Plant B" and GM's secret "Plant X".
Progress in the case is slow, bogged down by the need for meticulous document review.
GM is seeking retribution through the German and US courts.
The US Justice Department's investigation adds a political dimension to the affair, as does the Bonn government's pressure for conciliation.
So far, the German court has rejected GM's claim that VW broke laws in poaching its employee.
However, the company was barred from trying to lure any more of GM's key German staff.
Lopez was ordered to pay a fine to avoid facing perjury charges, but still faces mail and wire fraud charges.
As the investigation continues, the US FBI has now been granted access to the German prosecutors' files.
